Secret Chambers and Hiding Places eBook

When Slindon House, Sussex, was undergoing some restorations,
a “priest’s hole” communicating
with the roof was discovered. It contained some
ancient devotional books, and against the walls were
hung stout leathern straps, by which a person could
let himself down.

The internal arrangements at Plowden Hall, Shropshire,
give one a good idea of the feeling of insecurity
that must have been so prevalent in those “good
old days.” Running from the top of the
house there is in the thickness of the wall, a concealed
circular shoot about a couple of feet in diameter,
through which a person could lower himself, if necessary,
to the ground floor by the aid of a rope. Here
also, beneath the floor-boards of a cupboard in one
of the bedrooms, is a concealed chamber with a fixed
shelf, presumably provided to act as a sort of table
for the unfortunate individual who was forced to occupy
the narrow limits of the room. Years before this
hiding-place was opened to the light of day (in the
course of some alterations to the house), its existence
and actual position was well known; still, strange
to say, the way into it had never been discovered.

CHAPTER VII

KING-HUNTING: BOSCOBEL, MOSELEY, TRENT, AND HEALE

When the Civil War was raging, many a defeated cavalier
owed his preservation to the “priests’
holes” and secret chambers of the old Roman
Catholic houses all over the country. Did not
Charles II. himself owe his life to the conveniences
offered at Boscobel, Moseley, Trent, and Heale?
We have elsewhere[1] gone minutely into the young
king’s hair-breadth adventures; but the story
is so closely connected with the present subject that
we must record something of his sojourn at these four
old houses, as from an historical point of view they
are of exceptional interest, if one but considers
how the order of things would have been changed had
either of these hiding-places been discovered at the
time “his Sacred Majesty” occupied them.
It is vain to speculate upon the probabilities; still,
there is no ignoring the fact that had Charles been
captured he would have shared the fate of his father.

[Footnote 1: See The Flight of the King.]

[Illustration: HIDING-PLACE BENEATH “THE
CHAPEL,” BOSCOBEL, SALOP]

[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO HIDING-PLACE IN “THE
GARRET” OR “CHAPEL,” BOSCOBEL]

[Illustration: HIDING-PLACE IN “THE SQUIRE’S
BEDROOM,” BOSCOBEL]

[Illustration: SECRET PANEL, TRENT HOUSE, SOMERSETSHIRE]

[Illustration: BOSCOBEL, SALOP]

[Illustration: HIDING-PLACE, TRENT HOUSE]

[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO HIDING-PLACE, TRENT
HOUSE]

[Illustration: TRENT HOUSE IN 1864]

[Illustration: HEALE HOUSE, WILTSHIRE]

After the defeat of Wigan, the gallant Earl of Derby
sought refuge at the isolated, wood-surrounded hunting-lodge
of Boscobel, and after remaining there concealed for
two days, proceeded to Gatacre Park, now rebuilt,
but then and for long after famous for its secret
chambers. Here he remained hidden prior to the
disastrous battle of Worcester.